House Valuation advice

Rachylou1981

I am getting my house valued tomorrow, purely for a idea as to whether I am in negative equity or not and if not, roughly how much profit I stand to make.

My issue is that the house has cosmetic damage from damp (firebreast wall cracks and paint flaking). This is due to be re-plastered and painted by my uncle but has been put off due to family illness. Therefore the house is not what I wanted it to look like but I didn't want to cancel the valuation and my viewpoint is that any survey down the line will pick up the damp whether it is visible or not in the beginning.

What I am wondering is whether I should be totally honest with the valuer about the damp immediately or let him spot it? It is not easy to spot as I have furniture in front but part of it is on show - guess I am not sure how much he will look at?

Rachylou1981

No-one?

Work colleagues say that I shouldn't mention it and should just leave him to look around house himself and only answer questions if he asks.
Said he will probably be in all of 5-10 minutes.

Lincoln_Imp

Doubt whether a EA will even spot it let alone be bothered about it

Windsorcastle

I wouldn't worry about it. People worry too much about fairly minor things that won't have much impact on the value. If you're planning to get it fixed anyway, don't draw their attention to it. Equally even if you didn't get it sorted, and put it on the market, it is for a buyer and/or their survey to find things like that, not your responsibility to confess every thing that's wrong with the place. However you do have to answer questions truthfully during conveyancing - from what I see, the get-out clause then is just to say 'the buyer should rely on their own survey'; that seems to be what solicitors put to cover themselves and the vendor.

Rachylou1981

Thanks for replies

Oh I definitely wouldn't lie to anyone regarding the damp. I was lied to when I bought it as the survey showed it up and the EA and sellers told me there was a guarantee and so I accepted regardless - turned out the guarantee was invalid as it was a photocopy and there was nothing I could do

curedham

What kind of guarantee you'd have for damp?

I wouldn't do anything for now, just get the EA in and do their valuation. They'll just gloss over the place, if they see it, they may suggest that you fix that before marketing the property.

Carl31

I doubt you would make any 'profit' on your house, interest and maintenance costs would have wiped it out ages ago

Rachylou1981

curedham wrote: »

What kind of guarantee you'd have for damp?

I wouldn't do anything for now, just get the EA in and do their valuation. They'll just gloss over the place, if they see it, they may suggest that you fix that before marketing the property.

It was a guarantee for a damp proof course

I will defo be fixing up the wall before I sell, my uncle is going to put the elements in for damp proofing too, whatever that means.

Rachylou1981

Carl31 wrote: »

I doubt you would make any 'profit' on your house, interest and maintenance costs would have wiped it out ages ago

I bought rock bottom in 2002. I have added money on to mortgage since then but I doubt if I am in negative equity it will be any more than a few grand.

I have maintained very little, choosing my social life over my house for the majority of the time I've owned it :beer::D

Rachylou1981

Valuer been and gone. The damp wasn't mentioned.

The good news is that I am not in negative equity but the bad news is that whatever the sale, the profit is only a few grand which will probably be non-existent when the damp is picked up

Least I have an idea of figures now though so I can move forward with a plan

sandsni

Did you find the actual source of the damp in the chimney breast? Are you sure the damage is "cosmetic" and that there are no structural issues from excess moisture having languished in the stone/brickwork. Unless you've dealt with that then you're really just storing up future problems for yourself. Hopefully your Uncle knows what he's doing and doesn't just redirect the moisture to another part of the house!

Any future buyers survey is likely to flag up damp (although from what I've read on this forum they nearly always flag up the possibility of damp just to keep themselves right).

TBH the value of the house is whatever someone is willing to pay for it, not what an EA says they can get for it.